


Hope

by nigiyakapepper



Series: The Android Hiro Ventures [1]
Category: Danball Senki
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Gen, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-27
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-10 20:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigiyakapepper/pseuds/nigiyakapepper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Lex were Hiro's father?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

“No wife or kids?” Takuya asks as he stirs a two spoons of sugar in his own coffee. Beside his, Ren’s brew is amazingly bitter; aromatic but strong as heck.

There’s something in Ren’s smile, like a secret or a lie. “…A son I suppose.”

“A son?” Takuya asks with mild interest. “Now that’s news to me. I’ve never thought of you as the fatherly type.”

“Oh? And what do I strike you as?”

Takuya takes a sip of coffee and hums appreciatively. “A single-minded bachelor. Stubborn. Once you’ve gotten convinced of something, it’s hard to change your mind about it. You’re like a kid yourself at times.”

Ren’s eyes go cold for a moment but Takuya doesn’t notice. The man is surprisingly perceptive, not that Ren would readily admit.

“How old is he?” Takuya continues good-naturedly.

“Younger than Ban and his friends,” Ren answers after a moment of thought.

“Really?” Takuya is intrigued. “Does he like LBXs? How come I’ve never seen him?”

Ren gives him a withering look. “I’d rather not bring him into our world.”

A beat, then. “You’re right.”

Takuya would probably read into what he said. He’d probably understand; he probably already knows but chooses not to say anything. Ren looks on as Takuya exits the coffee shop, having left his pay on the counter. Ren thinks it’s time he went home for the day too.

— - —

“ _A single-minded bachelor. Stubborn. Once you’ve gotten convinced of something, it’s hard to change your mind about it.”_

_You’re right. I’ve lost faith in this world. There is nothing anyone can do to make me change my mind about that._

Ren types in the final adjustments of the program—memories, personality, motor functions. It’s almost four in the morning and he is exhausted, but something like a dying will keeps him awake. Years and years of engineering and research culminates to this final day.

_Except you, an existence born of my selfishness, desperation, and a mere human hope that there is indeed good in this world. I want you to experience that. Or maybe it’s pretentious of me to think this way. Maybe I want to leave something of myself behind. I may be boosting my own ego when I say I’ll carry all the despair and hate in order to free you of them._

Ren presses buttons and the boy’s fingers move. He begins to breathe. Soft, human-like eyes twitch behind closed eyelids, as if he were dreaming.

“Show me there is hope in this world.”

Ren shuts down his computers, erases all the data, removes the tubes and cables, and leaves the door unlocked. He looks back at the sleeping boy on the table, surprised at his own detachment. Perhaps he is indeed too far gone to be saved.

“Live a good life, Hiro.”

When Hiro wakes up for the first time, he is all alone.

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was edited from its first version posted on [Tumblr](http://nigiyakapepper.tumblr.com/post/27768125750/im-probably-sorry).


End file.
